Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tropical Roots (66,000,000-10,000 BC)
Stand in the middle of Wadi Fanja on the outskirts of Muscat and you may just uncover
more than the toads and grasshoppers of today's arid vista. This was where archaeologists
discovered a herbivorous dinosaur, not unlike Zalmoxes or Rhabdodon dinosaurs from
France and Romania. What is interesting about this discovery is that it shows that the cli-
mate of eastern Arabia, some 66 million years ago, was far more verdant than it is today,
with savannah-like grasslands and abundant rainfall. Crocodiles also inhabited places like
Wadi Fanja, suggesting that permanent rivers helped to cut the deeply incised mountain
ranges of today's Peninsula.
Homo erectus was attracted to the rich hunting and gathering grounds of southern Arabia
more than a million years ago. Homo sapiens arrived on the scene around 100,000 BC and
began more organised settlement. Visitors to museums across the region, particularly the
National Museum in Bahrain and Bait al-Baranda in Muscat, will see charcoal burners and
spearheads, dating from 10,000 BC, as evidence of the earliest forms of social cohesion.
Travel to the museums of Pakistan and the Mediterranean and you'll be sure to find the small round seals
that were the hallmark of Dilmun traders. These seals represented their personal signatures and their wide
distribution is evidence of the extent of their trading influence, far beyond the Arabian Peninsula.
